Page:The lives of the poets of Great Britain and Ireland to the time of Dean Swift - Volume 4.djvu/126

116, and were expecting every moment to carry out his invitations to the company for whom they imagined it was prepared, he commanded them to go out to the ſtreet, and pick up whatever beggars, and poor people they ſaw, and invite them to his houſe: The ſervants obeyed, and Sir Richard ſoon ſaw himſelf at the head of 40 or 50 beggars, together with ſome poor decay’d tradeſmen. After dinner he plied them with punch and wine, and when the frolic was ended, he declared, that beſides the pleaſure of feeding ſo many hungry perſons, he had learned from them humour enough for a good comedy.

Our author was a man of the higheſt benevolence; he celebrates a generous action with a warmth that is only peculiar to a good heart; and however he may be blamed for want of œconomy, &c. yet was he the moſt agreeable, and if we may be allowed the expreſſion, the moſt innocent rake, that ever trod the rounds of indulgence.

He wrote ſeveral poetical pieces, particularly the Engliſhman’s thanks to the duke of Marlborough, printed in 1711; a letter to Sir Miles Wharton, concerning Occaſional Peers, dated March 5th, 1713. The Guardian of Auguſt the 7th, 1713; and the importance of Dunkirk conſidered, in defence of that Guardian, in a letter to the bailiff of Stockbridge: The French Faith repreſented in the preſent ſtate of Dunkirk: The Criſis, a Letter to a Member of Parliament, concerning the bill to prevent the preſent Growth of Schiſm, dated May 28, 1714; and his Apology for himſelf and his Writings.

Theſe pieces ſhew how much he was diſpleaſed with the laſt meaſures of Queen Anne, and were written to combat the Tory miniſtry; to oppoſe which